1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to multi-participant conferencing systems, and more particularly to real-time content delivery for passive participants based upon activities of active participants in an integrated multi-participant conferencing system with feedback from active participants provided through back-channel connections.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conferencing systems generally describe the ways in which a set of participants can collaborate. The structures of conferencing systems establish the rules for information exchange. Methods of communication are defined and the accessible media types are identified within the conferencing system structure. Some systems may allow for communication with remote or mobile participants, while others limit access to dedicated locations or members. Features such as grouping participants into logical meeting spaces, assigning security access rights to a collaboration, specializing in particular types of media communication, and so forth, are all elements of various conferencing systems.
Different forms of collaboration typically require different systems or configurations to manage the needs of the communication. For example, if the collaboration takes the form of educational training, the system must accommodate a presenter to manage content and direct lecture material to an audience or to one or more groups of participants. For a group or panel discussion or collaboration among participants in separate locations, the system must accommodate simultaneous inputs and outputs from participants with a contributing role in the exchange in each location. In a telephone-based conference system, only audio communication is available. With a video-based conference system, participants require more specialized devices to contribute the visual component for face-to-face collaboration and exchange, and for the collaboration and exchange associated with other visual media such as documents, presentation slides, images, and so forth.
One collaboration model is known as a one-to-one collaboration. In a one-to-one collaboration, the conference rules, also referred to as collaboration rules, are simple: participant media is simply exchanged. Each participant hears the other's audio and views the other's video. Conventional decorum and social norms generally control the exchange as each participant waits for the other to finish a communication before offering a reply, response, or other contribution to the exchange. This “full duplex” communication style is a close approximation of in-person exchange, and allows for interruption and free expression. Some conferencing systems, however, impose restrictive communication rules due to system requirements or limitations. Such system rules might include a requirement for clues to signal when one participant is completed transmitting (i.e., “half duplex”), permission to initiate a reply or new transmission, etc. In either system, an independent observer of the one-to-one collaboration might simply follow the exchange among participants, likely concentrating attention at any given time to the one actively speaking.
Another collaboration model is a one-to-many collaboration. In a one-to-many collaboration, the “one” is typically denoted as a speaker or presenter, and the “many” are an attending “audience” or participants. A primarily unidirectional exchange, the one-to-many collaboration requires all audience members to be able to hear and see the activities of the speaker (i.e., the speaker's media is transmitted to all participants). For the audience members, the activities of other participants (i.e., audio and/or video media of the audience) may not be desirable, and could be detrimental to the effectiveness of the one-to-many collaboration. The speaker may, however, be interested in audience feedback to the presentation and wish to be aware of interruptions or questions. Further, in some one-to-many collaboration models, the speaker can control when and who can speak, as during a question and answer period. At that time, audience members may wish to hear the participant asking a question in addition to the speaker's response. Conference systems for one-to-many collaborations therefore require more complex rules than a one-to-one collaboration. An independent observer of a one-to-many collaboration might follow along with the speaker in control, or may choose to watch reaction or any contribution made by audience participants.
Yet another collaboration model is a group discussion. In a group discussion, rules of collaboration may not be narrowly defined, and may operate similarly to a one-to-one collaboration. e.g., with a multitude of one-to-one collaborations occurring. Exchange of media occurs among all participants, and accepted social norms and customs may define the order of exchange. Panel discussions, on the other hand, may demand elaborate collaboration rules for moderation and time management. A panel discussion, a particular type of group discussion which may be defined as a group-to-many collaboration model, requires only a subset of participants to act in a contributing role in the collaboration (i.e., media from each panel participant is transmitted to all audience participants). Remaining participants may be audience members listening/watching (observing) the panel members' exchange. One or more specialized participants may be assigned the role of moderator tasked to control the discussion and keep the direction of the collaboration focused on topic, within defined time constraints, in accordance with pre-defined collaboration rules, and so forth. The moderators may have special control over speaking rights, time allocated to panel members, or exchange with audience members at designated times such as question and answer sessions. Again, an independent observer of the exchanges in these group collaboration models likely follows the “topic” as it is revealed within the context of the exchange of media.
In a conference environment there are usually many media choices available. Real-time audio and video signals of various formats are the primary types of media. Documents, presentation slides, images, and the like further expand the media options. Conferencing systems are generally limited by the number and types of media they support, and superior support for a particular set of media types is one way in which conferencing systems differentiate themselves.
The number of media available during a conference can be larger than the count of attending participants. Microphones may supply audio from each conference location and/or each participant. Multiple cameras offering different views of subjects may provide video media capturing the speaker, other participants, or other groups/locations.
Prior art conferencing systems are typically configured and operated to facilitate media exchange and communication. Participants in a conference may be configured to provide media to the system. In each of the collaboration models described above, “active” participants are generally enabled to contribute media, and to participate within the context of the media contributed by other participants. Importantly, each active participant has control over the media s/he is observing and exchanging. Observers of a conference, however, are generally not configured to contribute media. A “passive” participant, an observer, is able to view, listen to, or monitor the media as provided by the conferencing system. A passive participant has no control over media exchange or contribution, and relies on the conferencing system to provide a “view” of, or subset of, the “interesting media” exchanged during a collaboration. In some conferencing environments, a particular active participant is designated as the feed for the passive participant. Whatever media is selected by the designated active participant, and however the media is configured to be viewed, listened to, or observed by the designated active participant will be mirrored to the passive participant. If, for example, the designated active participant is a presenter in a collaboration, then audience feedback and core presentation media may be all that is provided to the passive participant as said media is the only media the presenter participant is monitoring. In other conferencing systems, a third-party media producer may be utilized to select and configure the presentation of appropriate media for the passive participant. While the third-party media producer would ideally provide a balanced selection of “interesting” media, the choice of “interesting” is limited by the third party serving as the media producer, and the selection of interest becomes increasingly difficult as the number and diversity of medias and of participants, both active and passive, increases. By way of example, in a one-to-many or group-to-many collaboration involving multiple locations, interest in one location may be vastly different than interest in another location. The selection and configuration of media provided to the passive participant may suffice to meet the needs of one location/group while being wholly inadequate for another location/group. What is needed is a conferencing system that provides automated and intelligent content and content delivery features to meet the needs of passive participants ranging in numbers from one to many, and ranging in interests from uniform to diverse.